If Jim Harbaugh's biggest strength as a head coach is winning football games, keeping his team in the news cycle is a close second. His bizarre recruiting tactics, way-over-the-top sideline blowups and Twitter clap-backs are well documented, but wherever he is, he wins.
The Michigan Wolverines' spring break trip to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. was evidence of just that. More than 1,000 miles from Ann Arbor, Michigan's open football practice at the IMG Academy Friday drew a crowd of about 5,000.
"It really made it closer to a game than a normal practice," Harbaugh said. "It was great to see the stands full. Lots of maize and blue.
"I would recommend this to other football programs. I'd recommend it to us to do it again. There were no negatives."
However, that is not likely to happen. The SEC complained to the NCAA that Harbaugh was infringing on his players' time off from football activities by holding practices during spring break. The NCAA stated it, too, disagreed with Harbaugh's trip but acknowledged that there was nothing they could do to stop it. The NCAA stressed the need to adopt a policy protecting student-athletes' offseason breaks.
Harbaugh's mission to turn around one of college football's most historic programs appears to be going according to plan. In his first year, the Wolverines went 10-3 but could not beat the Big Ten East's superpowers, Michigan State and Ohio State.
Harbaugh is expected to once again hold satellite camps in the SEC's backyard, and there is no word on whether or not he will hold another "Signing with the Stars" event for next year's National Signing Day. Regardless, it is all coming up maize and blue. Harbaugh is winning, and he has won everywhere he has gone: the University of San Diego, Stanford, the San Francisco 49ers and now Michigan.
"I think my favorite one so far was the comment that this was a circus, like a big circus. This and the Signing of the Stars, like, 'What a circus,'" Harbaugh said after Friday night's open practice. "As a youngster I remember the circus coming to town, looking forward to it, saving my pennies and dollars because the circus was coming to town and I couldn't wait. Every circus I ever went to, I left feeling really great about it. It was a lot of fun."
